Summary.
Heart rate variability (HRV) decrease in Parkinson’s disease (PD) could only be a consequence of reduce motor activity besides of being a marker of cardiovascular dysautonomia. Under continuously recorded and standardised motor activity, we studied thirty patients compared to controls in 3 PD stages: group I: less than 2 year-evolution, slight impaired without L-dopa; group II: mildly impaired with L-dopa; group III: advanced PD with motor complications. No difference was observed between group I and controls. The diurnal low frequency power (LF) and the ratio of LF/high frequency (HF) power decreased in groups II and III. The nocturnal vagal indicators: HF power and pNN50 were decreased in group III. Those parameters were correlated with Off-drug-motor handicap, suggesting an evolutive HRV decrease with disease severity but not with On-drug-motor activity. The low LF despite the higher motor activity in group III, due to dyskinesias, suggested a defective cardiovascular up-regulation.
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Received January 15, 2003; accepted April 9, 2003 Published online June 10, 2003
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Devos, D., Kroumova, M., Bordet, R. et al. Heart rate variability and Parkinson’s disease severity. J Neural Transm 110, 997–1011 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-003-0016-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-003-0016-8